Drum Stix

(GLASS ONION SPOILERS AHEAD)

… it’s a fugue. The movie is a Fugue.

During the puzzle box sequence when the music box puzzle opens, Yo Yo Ma tells Peg that the music they’re hearing is Bach’s “Little Fugue in G Minor” he explains:

“A fugue is a beautiful musical puzzle based on just one tune. And when you layer this tune on top of itself, it starts to change and turn into a beautiful new structure.”

Right in front of our eyes, Rian Johnson just told us how the movie was going to go. It starts out with a simple tune, your classic murder mystery setup much like the Clue movie and half of the mysteries Agatha Christie was famous for writing. We meet the eccentric characters, a murder happens, everyone runs around for a while, and the detective seems ready to tell us whodunit…

And then the movie starts over again. The tune is the same, but layered on top of itself with new context and a different point of view. Every new scene from Helen or Benoit’s perspective changes our perspective on the previous half of the movie, scene by scene. This new layer of the film adds to it and forms a beautiful new structure itself.

Addendum: the opening shots of each act also parallel each other. The first half begins with the start of Bach’s Little Fugue as we are introduced to Claire at her home when her puzzle box is delivered, and then we hear the fugue again but further on in the piece when Helen delivers her box to Benoit Blanc in the second half.